The Holocene Calendar
In Dec 1993, the geologist Cesare Emiliani submitted a letter to the journal Nature in which he proposed that the BC/AD calendar be scrapped and replaced with a calendar that would set year 1 at the beginning of the Holocene geological epoch, approximately 12,000 years ago. This, he argued, was when the "human era" in the history of the world began, and so was a date that had significance to all world civilizations.
In his scheme, all existing AD years would be changed by simply adding 10,000 to them. So 2023 would become 12,023.
His proposal makes a lot of sense. Not least because it would eliminate all the weirdness with BC dates, such as the oddity that even though the BC years are counted backwards, their days and months run forwards.
More info: wikipedia
In his scheme, all existing AD years would be changed by simply adding 10,000 to them. So 2023 would become 12,023.
His proposal makes a lot of sense. Not least because it would eliminate all the weirdness with BC dates, such as the oddity that even though the BC years are counted backwards, their days and months run forwards.
More info: wikipedia
Comments
We should add that Dionysus clearly picked the wrong year for Jesus' birth. The Gospels say Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC, after ordering the slaughter of boys under two years old.
Posted by Phred22 on 08/18/23 at 08:31 PM
@Phred22: also, Jesus was not born in mid winter, since (as the carol has it) The Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night, which even in the Middle East one only does in summer. Our whole Christian way of dating is based on a mix of miscalculation and fudging. Still, since it puts year 1 at a point which is interesting in European, Chinese, and Indian history; and the start of the year in mid-winter; it may be wrong, but at least it's useful.
By contrast, I find the trend of replacing AD/BC by CE/BCE deeply hypocritical: it pretends to "snub" Christianity, yet keeps the same - and wrong at that! - Christian epoch. If the atheists were honest, they'd date their dates with AF/BF.
By contrast, I find the trend of replacing AD/BC by CE/BCE deeply hypocritical: it pretends to "snub" Christianity, yet keeps the same - and wrong at that! - Christian epoch. If the atheists were honest, they'd date their dates with AF/BF.
Posted by Richard Bos on 08/19/23 at 05:07 AM
I've long thought that the beginning of the Egyptian calendar in 4241 BC would be a good year 1 for a universal calendar. (the date has raised eyebrows because there was no literate Egyptian civilization at the time, but we now know people start calculating time before they do a lot of more conspicuous things.)
Posted by Dr. Fian on 08/19/23 at 10:24 AM
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Category: Centuries